#39 The Delgados – Everything Goes Around The Water

Continuing the John Peel theme, the bearded one was so besotted with Glasgow’s the Delgados that he once invited them to play at his wife’s birthday bash. Sadly both the man and the band have now departed. Peel’s legacy is obvious and the case for the Delgados is crystal clear if you have the time to spend an afternoon in the presence of their stone cold classic ‘The Great Eastern’. Even if you take this epic out of the equation the band were responsible for a basket of gloriously off-kilter gems. None more so than ‘Everything Goes Around The Water’ which has a childish sense of glee with beautifully delivered boy/girl refrains. The song staggers from one high to the next as the fleeting strings, starry guitars and some fumbling bass lines sketch a piece of pure pop out of what could have become an uneven mess. But that was the Delgados great gift, the multifaceted junkets they broadcast could have been construed as awkward and unwieldy but as everyone knows it’s what’s inside that counts. ‘Everything Goes Around The Water’ is truly one of the most magical pieces of contemporary music. It’s the Princess Bride put to song. KD